Our Trip to the Columbia River Gorge

Ed had a Central Region directors meeting in Washington at the Skamania Lodge right on the Columbia River. I got to tag along and was so excited to do so, as I had never been in this part of Washington before, and had never been in Oregon before either. We were going to fly to Portland on the day after Labor Day and then fly home on Friday. We decided to drive instead so that we could see more of the country (and spend some more time at our favorite camping spot in Idaho)

Ed had spent the week in Philadelphia and his flight got him home at 11:00 am on Friday - we had everything packed in the car and ready to go and headed out by 11:3o! We spent Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, camping in the mountains just north of Boise, Idaho. Tuesday morning we headed West to Oregon. It was a beautiful drive - the rolling hills of Eastern Oregon were golden and so soothing. The mountains between LeGrande and Pendleton were lovely. And then we got to the Columbia River and the Gorge.

Gorgeous is the only word that describes that whole area. Miles and miles of driving down past this huge river - being fascinated by the fact that

So here are the pictures -




A gorgeous view from the Vista View looking West toward Portland down the Columbia River Gorge
Turned slightly to my right and took this picture looking up the Columbia River Gorge
Out on a walk at the Skamania Resort with a friend Kris - I was about to take a picture of this beautiful moss covered log when she offered to take a picture of me with it. Since Ed never (hardly) ever takes pictures of me, I said go for it!


This is the view up River from the Skamania Lodge
I am standing on the second floor balcony taking this picture out the front window of the Skamania Lodge
Looking over the same balcony towards the foyer and the front doors of the lodge
HorseTail Falls

We headed up highway 30 to do some sightseeing and this is the first of a whole string of marvelous waterfalls. This one plunges about 280 feet straight down from Horsetail Creek. Ed mentioned that a 'creek' that puts out this much water in Utah would be called a river in Utah!
This is called the Multanomah Falls and it is simply gorgeous!! It falls almost 648 feet total with the main fall being 580 feet down to a small pool - a rock bridge has been built for tourists to get closer - and then another 8 feet farther down. We hiked up to the bridge but didn't hike all the way to the top of the ridge. Then we hopped back in the car again and drove to two more falls but didn't take pictures of them.
Here is Ed leaning back to get the whole fall in one shot!

This is the Bridge of the Gods - about 5000 years ago there was a huge earthquake and rock slide that came down and created a land bridge from shore to shore for hundreds of years. It slowly wore away until all signs of it were gone and the Indians always talked about the Bridge of the Gods. So a bridge was built in the same area only above the water - part of the bridge lifts up so boats can pass under. ..and it was named The Bridge of the Gods. It is a toll road and it cost us $1 every time we went back and forth across it. One side of the bridge is Oregon and the other side is Washington.



Some how these pictures are out of sequence - this, again is the Multonomah Falls...from the top down to the pool and bridge

and from the pool area down to the next level...from here the river turns left and contines on down a slide of rocks. Beautiful
I first saw the mossy trees here and had to get some pictures. You wouldn't be able to trust that old adage that moss grows on the North side of the trunk so if you got lost you could find your directions by looking at the moss.
These are the Cascade Locks built across a portion of the river - there is another 2/3 of the river on the right side of this picture where there are three dams built right next to each other. I would have loved to have seen this river a hundred years ago before the dams were built every 20 miles up and down the river - smoothing it out like a large lake between dams. The locks are here to help the barges and boats move from one water level to the next







This is the paddle wheel boat we got to go on for a dinner cruise up and down the river on Thursday evening with Ed's coworkers. His big boss was there and when Scott told me Happy Anniversary, I told him that I thought it was very nice for his company to treat us to this wonderful vacation for our 43rd wedding anniversary!
On the dinner cruise looking out at the pine covered hills - the weather was very comfortable - it rained quite often but it wasn't cold.
We had a marvelous four days in Oregon/Washington. For our anniversary on Wed the 8th we took off and enjoyed the waterfalls and then went to Tod's chick'n n dumplings for some of the best dumplings we have ever eaten!! It was in Troutdale and it finished off a wonderful day of celebration!